


The Wicker Bed

by Knighttimerose (LilMissHammond)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluffy, Halloween, Illness, London Apartment, M/M, October, Storm - Freeform, yes its one of these
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 06:24:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11617794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilMissHammond/pseuds/Knighttimerose
Summary: Three times that Dan Howell slept in Phil Lester's bed, and one time he did not.





	The Wicker Bed

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and write one of these "three times so and so did a thing" fics. Well, actually two. The other will probably go up later, but they are in no way connected just fyi. This one is the fluffy version, the other is angsty. So, look out for that, I guess?

“Phil,” Dan whined from his position on the floor. He waited until he heard footsteps come towards the living room, and called out again. “Phiiiiiiiiiil.”

The taller boy’s head came into view above Dan. “What, Dan?” He looked down at him in slight amusement. “Why are you on the floor?”

“You have so much crap,” Dan accused, staring up at Phil. “I’m exhausted.”

Phil rolled his eyes. “We’ve moved like three boxes. Come on, up.” He held out a hand to the younger boy. “We can order pizza once we get everything in the house.”

That made Dan sit up and he took Phil’s offered hand. They headed downstairs once more, each grabbing a box and then trekking back up the many flights of stairs. The boxes weren’t too heavy, but neither of them were particularly fit and they’d already lugged all of Dan’s stuff up to the apartment. Both of them were exhausted from moving all day.

“Remind me why we didn’t pick the ground floor again?” Dan said as he dropped the box in the middle of the hallway.

Phil dropped his box on top. “There should just be one box left,” he told Dan, who sighed in relief. “I’ll go grab it.”

Dan watched Phil trudge down the stairs, then turned to the multiple boxes lining the hallway to the kitchen. Even though the Manchester apartment had been relatively small, they had both acquired a lot of crap. Dan picked up one of his boxes and headed for the bedroom he’d claimed. It didn’t take him long to move all of the boxes marked **Dan, bedroom** but by the time he had done, all he wanted to do was flop down onto his bed. Which he no longer had. Dan swore under his breath and went into Phil’s bedroom.

“How come you got the room with the bed already in it?”

Phil turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “You really want this wicker bed? Go ahead, take it. It’s ugly.”

Dan laughed. “God no, you’re stuck with it now, Philly. Besides, it’s not black,” he pointed out. Dan made to go lie down on the bed, but Phil grabbed his arm.

“Oh no you don’t,” Phil said as Dan whined. “If you fall asleep now, you’re not going to wake up for god knows how many hours. We still have things left to do.”

“Ugh, fine.” Dan let Phil drag him out of the room. “Can we at least get pizza first?” Phil nodded, which seemed to drastically improve Dan’s mood. Admittedly, it had taken them longer than expected to move all of their crap out of the other place and into this new apartment. Phil collapsed onto the bed as Dan hurried off to get his laptop.

 

By the time they’d eaten, the sun had set and neither of them could be bothered doing any more unpacking. The house was completely unfurnished, so they’d sat on the floor to eat their pizza and Dan had spent a while trying to figure out how to work their new fireplace. Phil had refused to touch the thing, saying he’d probably kill them both in a fiery explosion. Now, they both retreated into Phil’s room, currently the only room with anywhere to sit. Dan suggested filming a video, but Phil said he didn’t have the energy, so they just lay on Phil’s bed for a while chatting and laughing. Despite the wicker bed being one of the ugliest things Dan had ever seen, it was actually rather comfortable.

“Where’s your laptop?” Dan asked, balancing his now dead phone on his forehead. He was lying across the end of the bed, and Phil was sat cross legged next to him, hugging a pillow.

“On the floor, why?”

“Let’s put on a movie or something, it’s eerily quiet in here.” His phone slipped and whacked him in the eye, so he gave up trying to balance it. “It feels like the start of a horror movie.” Phil laughed at him.

“Yeah, well now that your phone is dead, we’d both be screwed.” He leaned over the edge of the bed, trying to grab the laptop without getting up. “If we die, I’m blaming you.”

Dan lifted his head. “I’ll sacrifice you and then jump out of a window into a taxi,” he laughed.

“How noble of you.” Phil shook his head, settling back on the bed now that he had his laptop. “Right, what do you wanna watch then?”

Dan scrambled up the bed so that he could see the screen as Phil pulled up Netflix. “What’s new?” After some minor arguing, they settled on a horror film neither of them had seen yet. Phil had asked if Dan was sure he wanted to watch a horror after just admitting that the house was creeping him out. Dan rolled his eyes and hit play.

 

Near the end of the movie, Phil had glanced over at Dan to find that he had fallen asleep. He smiled to himself, lowered the volume on his laptop and kept watching. As the credits finally started rolling, Phil nudged Dan. Dan made a sleepy mumble, but didn’t open his eyes. Phil would’ve just left him asleep, but Dan was curled into Phil’s side and Phil was on an awkward angle. He shook his shoulder lightly.

“Dan,” he whispered. One eye cracked open to stare up at Phil. “You gotta move.”

Dan sleepily moaned, but slowly sat up. He rubbed his eyes, blinking at Phil in the dim light of the laptop. “What time is it?” His voice was croaky and low. Phil chuckled.

“About one in the morning. You fell asleep before the movie finished.” Dan yawned and stretched, scooting further down the bed.

“It wasn’t a great movie,” he defended. “Besides, I’m exhausted from lugging all your jumpers up the stairs.”

Phil decided to ignore the jab. “Are you gonna get changed then, or just stay in that?”

Dan blinked at him. “What?”

“To sleep, Dan,” Phil elaborated.

It took Dan’s sluggish brain a moment to realize what Phil meant. Since Dan had decided on buying a bigger bed and they didn’t have a couch yet, there was nowhere for Dan to sleep. “Oh, right. I’ll be right back.” He hurried off into his bedroom to find some pajamas.

Phil shook his head in amusement, turning to a box to find himself some pajamas. He went with what was on top, a pair of Star Wars pants and a shirt with the Sunnydale High logo on it. He moved his laptop on top of the strange chest that had come with the bed so that neither of them would stand on it in the middle of the night, and proceeded to climb into bed. Dan padded back in a few seconds later, wearing sweatpants and an oversized shirt. He blindly found his way over to the bed, Phil’s hushed laughter acting as his guide.

“Shut up,” Dan said as he crawled into bed. Phil laughed more.

“Goodnight, Dan.”

 

\---

 

About a month into living at their new apartment, Dan suddenly found himself home alone. Phil had gone out for the night, telling Dan when he walked out the door that he might crash at his friends place so Dan shouldn’t worry if he didn’t come home. Dan just had nodded and closed the door, but secretly he was glad that Phil had told him. Any time Phil was out past midnight and Dan hadn’t heard from him, he started getting anxious. He knew it was silly, but his brain would form scenarios of Phil lying in the gutter or getting mugged or hit by a car and it was hard not to start worrying. He knew Phil could probably take care of himself, but at the same time Phil was known far and wide for attracting strange people, and for being clumsy. That was just a bad combination at two in the morning.

Dan padded through into the lounge, picked up the remote and collapsed onto the sofa. He’d probably spend the night the same as if Phil were here, watching tv or scrolling through Tumblr, it would just be a lot quieter without Phil. As he flicked through channels, Dan wondered what there was for him to have for dinner that required minimum effort.

 

It had been lightly raining for most of the day, but as Dan headed for his bedroom that night it started getting heavier and the wind picked up.

“Great,” Dan muttered to himself, trying to remember if he’d closed all the windows. It wasn’t that Dan didn’t like the rain, he actually loved it as long as he was inside and dry, but once again his mind drifted to Phil. Although he doubted the older boy would be standing out in the rain, an image of Phil soaked to the bone and shivering came into his mind. He chuckled lightly.

Dan changed into his Pokemon trainer sweatpants and dug out an oversized jumper to wear to bed. He hadn’t been too cold in the lounge, but the temperature was rapidly dropping and he was starting to shiver a little. Dan crawled into bed with his phone, huddling down under the blankets for warmth. An hour into his scrolling, the rain was bucketing down and he could hear distant rumbles of thunder. By the time 2am had rolled around and Dan was starting to become tired, each flash of lightening lit up his bedroom for a second and the following thunder boomed overhead. Coupled with the wind whipping around the building and the rain lashing the windows, Dan wasn’t sure if he’d be able to fall asleep. Dan usually required utter silence to be able to sleep properly, and the flashes of lightening weren’t exactly helping his cause either. Dan curled up into a ball on his side, and pulled his blankets over his head to try to drown out the noise. He flinched when thunder clapped overhead again.

 

Dan would never actually admit it, but he’d been afraid of thunder as a child, and the lingering feeling of unease stayed with him into his twenties. He wasn’t necessarily scared, but their apartment was near the top of the building so as the thunder drew closer, the long rolling cracks were louder than he’d heard in a long time, and it brought back the childhood feeling of being alone and scared in his room, with shadows crawling up the walls and each crack of thunder causing him to throw his hands over his ears and screw his eyes closed. Another deafening clap of the thunder had him pressing the palms of his hand against his ears. Dan suddenly felt very alone. He peeked at his phone, but there were no messages from Phil and he had said that he probably wouldn’t be home tonight anyway. So, feeling a little childish, but still very much on edge, Dan grabbed his pillow and headed for Phil’s bedroom. He crawled into Phil’s bed and curled up into a ball, pressing his pillow over his head to block out some of the incessant thunder. Slowly, as the thunder moved away and exhaustion took over Dan’s body, he drifted off to sleep.

 

In the early hours of the morning when Phil came home, yawning and rather exhausted, Dan was still huddled in the middle of Phil’s bed, his pillow half hanging off. When Phil saw this, he smiled and shook his head, but made sure he was quiet as he got changed. He climbed into bed, nudging Dan so that he’d shift over, and snuggled down under the blankets to get in a few extra hours of sleep. Next to him, Dan continued to sleep, completely oblivious to the fact that Phil was now home.

 

\---

 

Dan woke up to rather loud knocking on his door. He rubbed his eyes blearily and called out, knowing it was Phil on the other side. “What?” No reply came, but the door opened and Phil poked his head in the room. His skin was slightly paler than usual and held a green tinge. Dan sat up as Phil shuffled through the door. He had an idea what was coming before Phil even opened his mouth.

“I’m sick,” he croaked out, his voice raspy and harsh. Talking strained his throat and he let out a small cough. Dan stared at him with wide eyes.

“Ergh, I don’t want your germs!” he said. “Why didn’t you stay in bed?”

“I tried to call for you, but I can’t make much noise,” Phil pouted. “Otherwise I would have.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m awake now. What do you want?” Phil looked at him with the pout still on his face, making his eyes as wide as possible.

“Will you make me breakfast?”

Dan’s eyebrow’s flew up. “What, you can get out of bed but you can’t make food?” But, as much as he wanted to, Dan couldn’t really say no to Phil. “Fine,” he sighed.

Phil brightened. He grinned as Dan flung back his covers and swung his legs out of bed. Dan grabbed a shirt and pulled it over his head, then ruffled his hair.

“Off to bed with you, then. I’ll bring you some tea in a minute.” Phil grinned again and hurried off back to bed.

 

Later, Dan went out to the shops to pick Phil up some things. They were out of tissues already, and Phil had requested soup as he couldn’t really eat anything else. He’d also requested ice cream but Dan had said no. No ice cream when you’re sick, according to his mother anyway. Dan also picked up some cold and flu tablets, lozenges, some echinacea tea, and a new hot water bottle to replace their one that was falling apart. When he got home, he found Phil in the lounge wrapped in his duvet and watching Great British Bake Off.

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” Dan pointed out.

Phil smiled sheepishly, not taking his eyes off the screen. “I wanted to watch the new episode. Besides, I’m feeling a little better,” he lied.

“Mhm.” Dan walked over to Phil and touched the back of his hand to Phil’s forehead. “Liar. You’re burning up.”

“Am I?” Phil asked in surprise. He felt freezing. “Okay, so maybe I’m not better.” Dan shook his head at him, a lopsided smile creeping over his face.

“You can stay in here until you’ve eaten lunch, then you’re going back to bed.” Phil didn’t have the energy to fight him, so he nodded. Dan retreated into the kitchen to heat up their soup.

 

That evening when Dan went to check up on Phil, he found him lying like a starfish in the middle of his bed, with only a pair of boxers on, staring up at the ceiling. Dan frowned and set down the mug of tea he’d brought in.

“Too hot?” he asked, quickly pulling his phone out of his back pocket to check the time. It was too early to give Phil any more Panadol to try and reduce his fever.

Phil rolled his head to look at Dan and nodded sadly. “I’ve gone from too hot, to too cold and back again in the past few hours. I’ve given up watching movies, I can’t concentrate.” He noticed the mug of tea on his bedside table and sat up so he could drink it.

Dan sighed. So far, Phil seemed to only be getting worse. Even his voice sounded worse than it had in the morning. “In two hours, you can have some more Panadol. Other than that, I’m not sure what to do,” Dan admitted. He watched as Phil picked up the steaming mug of tea and goosebumps broke out on his arms. “But maybe you should put some pants on,” he added as the goosebumps travelled further down Phil’s skin.

Phil sighed and placed the mug aside, picking up his duvet from off the floor. “I’ll just get too hot again. Thanks for the tea.”

Dan hovered by the door, wanting to help but unsure of what more he could offer. He decided to leave Phil be until he was needed, and try to distract himself with some television. “Call me if you need anything,” he said, before walking out the door.

 

Three hours passed with no sound from Phil, so Dan decided he ought to check up on him again. It was getting late, so he figured Phil may have fallen asleep; he’d passed on having dinner earlier because he’d felt too queasy. Dan gently knocked on Phil’s door, waited and then cracked the door open. The room was dark, the only light coming from Phil’s open laptop.

“Phil?” he whispered. When no reply came, he padded further into the room. Phil was huddled under his duvet, fast asleep and shivering. Dan quickly went into his bedroom, dug out his thick winter blanket and hurried back to Phil’s room. He lay the blanket over Phil, shifting his laptop onto the bedside table as he did. He leaned down to press his hand against Phil’s forehead again and frowned. Phil was once again burning up. Dan popped two Panadol out of the blister packet and gently tried to rouse Phil. He smiled lightly as Phil blinked up at him sleepily.

“Take these and then you can go back to sleep,” he whispered, holding out the pills and a glass of water.

Phil lifted his head enough to swallow them and then lay back down. He seemed a bit more alert now. “Dan,” he whispered, his voice so soft that Dan almost missed it. He was still shivering a lot. “I’m cold.”

Dan chuckled lightly and grabbed a hoodie from the floor. “Here, put this on. And some pants too.” Phil complied, sitting up long enough to don the clothes, before huddling back down under the blankets. His teeth were still chattering. “Want some more tea?” Dan asked. Phil nodded.

Dan hurried off to the kitchen and made them both a cup of tea, dumping some honey in Phil’s. On his return, he grabbed the pillows from his bed. He piled them up against Phil’s headboard so he could sit up and drink his tea and still be warm. “Scoot over,” Dan said, perching on the bed. Phil did as asked, bringing his leg up to stay as warm as possible. He stared up at Dan over his mug, a question in his eyes. “I want to keep an eye on you,” Dan said. “I’m staying right here until that fever is gone. I don’t want you dying in the middle of the night.” Phil cracked a small smile and sipped on his tea.

It didn’t take long for Phil to fall asleep again, loosely holding on to his half empty mug. Dan took the mug from him and placed it next to his own on the bedside table. He brought the blankets up further around Phil, who thankfully had stopped shivering and lay curled up next to him. A few moments later, he was asleep as well.

 

\---

 

October was, without a doubt, Phil’s favourite time of the year. The smell of pumpkin spice in almost every shop, coupled with spooky jumpers and new horror movies and a sea of bright orange leaves. He loved autumn and absolutely loved Halloween, even if he and Dan didn’t actually do much on the night itself. The run up to and the atmosphere of the holiday were enough. Plus, October meant Spooky Week on their gaming channel, and attempted baking. There really wasn’t anything better. Christmas came close, but there was always the chance of going home to family drama which he dreaded.

“Danieeeeeeel,” Phil sang from the top of the stairs into their office-turned-gaming-room. He had his phone clutched in one hand, and was bouncing on his toes excitedly.

Dan came out of his bedroom, yawning as he looked up at Phil. “What?”

“You’d never believe what came out today!”

“Probably not,” Dan replied, ruffling his hair. He’d been trying to find a good recipe for chocolate brownies.

“What movie have we most been looking forward to all year?” Dan’s brows drew together in thought. “The Conjuring!” Phil said, before Dan had a chance to answer.

A wide grin grew over Dan’s face. “We have to watch it tonight,” he said gleefully.

“I’ve already looked at cinema times, do you want to go in an hour or tonight at nine thirty?”

“Definitely tonight,” Dan said. “It’s way more atmospheric.”

Phil did a little excited jump. “I’ll book our tickets. Shall we get dinner while we’re out, there’s this Chinese place near the cinema I want to try.” Dan nodded.

“Sounds great, Phil,” he grinned. As Phil retreated back into the gaming room to book their tickets and do some more editing, Dan scurried into his bedroom to look for the spookiest outfit he owned.

 

After the movie, which was shorter than Dan had expected it to be but still a bloody great movie, they returned home and debating putting on another horror movie in the lounge. Phil, jittery from the pumpkin spice latte he’d gotten before the film, was trying to convince Dan to put on a lighter movie instead. Dan compromised by suggesting they watch Carrie. Phil rolled his eyes; that honestly wasn’t much better. But he’d rather watch that than Insidious like Dan wanted, so he gave in.

“But only if we can watch something nice afterwards,” he said.

Dan rolled his eyes. “Phil, it’s October! We’re supposed to be watching scary things, not animated kittens running around.”

Phil pouted. “Can we watch Buffy, then?” Dan thought for a second. He did love Buffy, and he supposed that it did fit with the spooky theme even if it wasn’t all that scary. But then he remembered a certain episode from season 7.

“Fine. But I get to pick which episodes.”

 

Carrie turned out to be a lot less frightening than Phil had expected, so he figured he’d gotten the best out of the situation, and happily watched Dan pick out the Buffy episode they were going to watch. He’d watched through Buffy plenty of times in his life, and as far as he remembered there weren’t that many scary episodes. However, when Phil realised just what episode Dan had chosen, he flinched. _Conversations with Dead People_. Even though the episode was mostly just sad at first, the second half was rather harrowing. He sighed, but accepted the episode.

Although he didn’t feel all that tired, Dan soon found himself unable to focus on the show halfway into the episode. He sat up a little straighter and blinked rapidly. It worked for a while, but out of nowhere exhaustion had hit him like a train and soon he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. By the time the episode finished, Dan had fallen asleep curled up at the end of the sofa. Phil noticed this and chuckled, before getting up and putting on episode 11 of season 6 _Gone_  so that he could watch something light hearted before he went to bed.


End file.
